North Korea's Nukes

NPR

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reviewed his military's plans to rain "an enveloping fire" around the U.S. territory of Guam — but opted not to fire missiles at this time, according to state media. Despite the stand-down, some Guamanians were alarmed after two radio stations aired an erroneous emergency alert Tuesday.

Kim visited the Korean People's Army as the self-imposed mid-August deadline for a missile demonstration approached, the Korean Central News Agency reports. But after hearing the plan and considering it, Kim opted not to give the order to launch missiles, but instead "would watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees," the report says. Kim also warned that the U.S. should not test North Korea's self-restraint. Read more ..

North Korea's Nules

from BBC and agencies

North Korea says a plan that could see it fire four missiles near the US territory of Guam will be ready this week. State media said Hwasong-12 rockets would pass over Japan and land in the sea about 30km (17 miles) from Guam, if the plan was approved by Kim Jong-un.

It denounced Donald Trump's warnings of "fire and fury" and said the US leader was "bereft of reason". The US has warned the North its actions could mean the "end of its regime". US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Pyongyang would be "grossly overmatched" in any war against the US and its allies. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, who is in Guam, says there is a sense that the North Korean threat is rhetorical, as most people feel that if they really did strike with missiles it would be suicidal for the North Korean regime. Read more ..

The Trump Era

Spero

The city council of Los Angeles voted this week to draft legislation that would require all companies seeking to do business with the city must reveal whether they are working on the wall along the Mexican border. The law would require companies to reveal whether they are helping to build a wall along the Mexican border, arguing that Angelenos deserve to know.

At a Tuesday meeting, the City Council voted to draft a law that would require companies seeking or doing business with the city to disclose contracts to help design, build, or provide supplies for “any proposed border wall between Mexico and the United States of America.”

Democrat Gil Cedillo said, “We want to know if there are people who do business with the city of Los Angeles ... who wish to profit from building a wall that would divide us from our nearest and dearest neighbor Mexico.” Cedillo proposed the law. He told local media that President Trump’s proposed wall is not only “repugnant,” but also racist and xenophobic. Read more ..

North Korea's Nukes

Daily Mail

North Korea said it is 'carefully examining' a plan to strike the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam with missiles, just hours after President Donald Trump told the country that any threat to the U.S. would be met with 'fire and fury.'

A spokesman for the Korean People's Army, in a statement carried by the North's state-run KCNA news agency, said Wednesday the strike plan will be 'put into practice in a multi-current and consecutive way any moment' once leader Kim Jong Un makes a decision.

Guam, which is roughly 2,128 miles from North Korea, is home to both Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam housing thousands of American service members and their families.

Roughly 28 percent of the island is occupied by the U.S. military. The base houses bomber assurance and deterrence missions, including six B-52s which the air force says provide 'strategic global strike capability [to] deter potential adversaries and provide reassurance to allies' and that they are ready to go. Read more ..

Debbigate

Spero

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said in an August 3 interview with her hometown newspaper that a laptop computer -- which she closely drilled the chief of the Capitol Police earlier this year -- was not hers, but actually belonged to her former IT assistant Imran Awan. She also claimed that investigators are targeting Awan because of his race and religion. Awan is a Muslim from Pakistan who is a naturalized American citizen.

During the exchange with Chief Matthew R. Verderosa in a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on May 18, Wasserman Schultz said during an annual police budget hearing, “If a Member loses equipment and it is found by your staff and identified as that member’s equipment and the member is not associated with any case, it is supposed to be returned. Yes or no?” Verderosa replied that the laptop is important to “an ongoing investigation,” but Wasserman Schultz pressed on regardless.

Financing the Flames

The Hill

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved legislation on Thursday that would restrict funding to the Palestinian Authority until it stops offering rewards to those who commit acts of violence against Israelis and others.

The Taylor Force Act passed the committee in a 16-5 vote and now heads to the Senate floor.

The bill was introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and is named after an American, 28-year-old Taylor Force, who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian last year in a Tel Aviv attack that also wounded 12 others.

The Palestinian Authority regularly offers financial compensation to the families of terrorists. Critics have dubbed it “pay to slay” and say the Palestinian Authority spends as much as $300 million a year on the program.

Financing the Flames

Algemeiner

Palestinian opposition to ending the policy of “martyr payments” could face a potentially insurmountable obstacle in the form of revised legislation governing American aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) that is expected to be voted on during the fall session of Congress.

A revised version of the Taylor Force Act — amended by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in advance of a vote this Thursday — places even more stringent conditions on aid to the PA as long as it operates a policy dubbed by critics as “pay-to-slay.” Currently, the PA spends more than $300 million of foreign aid money per year on monthly salaries to terrorists and their families that far outstrip the wages paid to Palestinian professionals, including the PA’s own civil servants. Read more ..

Debbie Gate

CB

Florida’s U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the controversial former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), had her office equipment seized by U.S. Capitol Police as part of a criminal investigation into congressional network security violations. Wasserman-Schultz admitted she frequently violates the DNC’s information security policy but still managed to point her finger at someone else.

The always boisterous congresswoman blamed the House of Representatives’ chief office manager for not stopping her from violating policies and perhaps the law regarding classified material.

According to news media accounts, during an appropriations hearing on Congress’ administrative budget in May, Wasserman Shultz conceded she had violated the policies for many years. She also sought to find out how much might be known about her Internet usage, asked if members of Congress are monitored? Read more ..

After the Election

CNBC

House Judiciary Committee Republicans on Thursday called for a new special counsel — to investigate Hillary Clinton, James Comey and Loretta Lynch.

In a letter addressed to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the Republicans said they were writing to "request assistance in restoring public confidence in our nation's justice system and its investigators, specifically the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)."

The lawmakers said they presumed investigation of potential Russian influence on the U.S. presidential election was covered by special counsel Robert Mueller, but that they "are not confident that other matters related to the 2016 election and aftermath are similarly under investigation" by the former FBI director.

"The unbalanced, uncertain, and seemingly unlimited focus of the special counsel's investigation has led many of our constituents to see a dual standard of justice that benefits only the powerful and politically well-connected," the letter said. "For this reason, we call on you to appoint a second special counsel to investigate a plethora of matters connected to the 2016 election and its aftermath, including actions taken by previously public figures like Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."

Last year, the Justice Department declined to charge Clinton or her associates for Clinton's handling of classified information while at the State Department. As a candidate, Trump threatened to appoint a special prosecutor to look into Clinton's actions.

Comey had made a public announcement about the FBI's recommendation that the Justice Department not pursue charges against Clinton. He had said "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a case against the former secretary of state for her handling of government emails. That conclusion was widely panned by Republicans.

Awan, an IT staffer who has worked for many House Democrats and was employed by Wasserman Schultz, was allegedly at the center of a scheme that involved double-charging the House for IT equipment, and may also have exposed House information online, according to Fox. Read more ..

The Edge of Justice

Lewin & Lewin filed a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari today in the United States Supreme Court on behalf of Susan Abeles, an Orthodox Jewish woman who was punished by the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority (“MWAA”) in 2013 for observing the last two days of Passover. Ms. Abeles followed MWAA procedures and received e-mailed approval from her supervisor to take annual leave to observe the holiday. Nonetheless, when she returned to work, MWAA designated her absence as “AWOL” and suspended her for five days. Read more ..

Israel on Edge

World Israel News

The Saudi monarch reportedly sent a message to the Jewish state via the US in an effort to solve the Temple Mount crisis.

On Tuesday, the London-based Arabic media outlet Elpah reported that the King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud contacted Israel via the Americans in an effort to defuse the crisis following the terrorist murder of two Israelis on the Temple Mount. It was reportedly the Saudi king’s personal intervention via the White House that prompted Israel to reopen the Temple Mount to Muslim worshipers.

While Israel reopened the site just two days after the attack, the Palestinian Authority and the Jordanian Waqf, an Islamic Trust that Israel entrusted to oversee Temple Mount activities, incited raucous protests in response to necessary security measures such as metal detectors.

Israel on Edge

Asharq Al Awsat

Israel is planning to establish a Syrian army in the southern region of Syria on the border with the Golan Heights and Jordan to stop Iranian expansion, according to informed Israeli sources.

The idea for the “South Syria Army”, which will be affiliated with Israel, is based on a close model of the South Lebanon Army that Israel founded and supported during the 1970’s. The South Lebanon Army was led by Saad Haddad and later on by Antoine Lahad.

The sources said that the idea is beginning to form in accordance with the US-Russian agreement to a ceasefire in southern Syria and prevent Iranian troops, “Hezbollah” and other regime affiliated militias from controlling the region.

Israel considers Daraa, Suwayda and other areas on the border with the Golan Heights as political and security interests. Tel Aviv has allies there, including the Druze “Fursan al-Joulan militia” and some sides that claim to be part of the Free Syrian Army. Read more ..

Jihad in America

Spero

Linda Sarsour, a Muslim activist who has been tied to the Hamas terrorist organization and who was a co-organizer of the Women’s March on Washington against President Trump in January, called for “jihad” against the Trump administration. Over the July 8-9 weekend, the voluble Sarsour addressed the -54th Annual Convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

In some 22 minutes, she called on the Muslims of America to fall in line in a holy war against the government, which she described as racist and Islamophobic. ISNA was initially organized to raise funds for Hamas, while federal prosecutors have labeled the ISNA as a constituent part of the Muslim Brotherhood network. The Muslim Brotherhood held power briefly after the so-called Arab Spring in Egypt in which President Hosni Mubarak, a US ally, was overthrown. The Muslim Brotherhood is banned in Egypt and has been tied to multiple acts of terrorism, including assassinations, church bombings, and persecution of Christians in pursuit of establishing a Muslim state.

North Korea's Nukes

CNN

North Korea claims to have conducted its first successful test of a long-range missile that it says can "reach anywhere in the world."

Tuesday morning's missile test, which was conducted on the orders of the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, reached a height of 2,802 kilometers (1,741 miles), according to state broadcaster Korea Central Television (KCTV).

That's the highest altitude ever reached by a North Korean missile, and puts the US on notice that Pyongyang could potentially hit the US mainland.

The regime appears to have timed the launch for maximum political effect, giving the order to fire on the eve of the July 4 holiday, just days after US President Donald Trump spoke with Japanese and Chinese leaders about the North Korea threat and before this week's G20 meeting.

How true is claim?

Euan Graham, director of the International Security Program at Sydney's Lowy Institute, said that one apparently successful test doesn't necessarily mean that North Korea has the global capability it claimed.

"If the North Koreans are claiming they can launch an ICBM (to) anywhere in the world, that needs to be looked at through a technical lens," he said, using the acronym for intercontinental ballistic missile.

After the Election

CB

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Ranking Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee Chairman Lindsey Graham and Ranking Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse sought information about alleged political interference by President Barack Obama’s handpicked Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the midst of the FBI’s investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private — and unauthorized — email server. The Senate’s inquiry comes as the result of the Judiciary Committee examining the circumstances surrounding the removal of James Comey as FBI Director by President Donald Trump.

In April, journalists reported that the FBI had obtained a large number of hacked documents, one of them was alleged to have been written by a Democratic Party minion who said he was confident that Attorney General Lynch would keep the Clinton investigation from going too far and causing damage to her presidential campaign. Read more ..

Media on Edge

Spero

Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Sanders accused CNN of being a "disgrace" to journalism. During a press briefing at the White House on Tuesday, she cited a new undercover video released by Project Veritas in which a CNN news producer suggested that the news media are sensationalizing its coverage of the supposed collusion between Russian agents and members of Donald Trump’s campaign organization. She said that President Trump is "frustrated" by the "constant barrage of fake news" about his administration and the federal investigation into whether his 2016 campaign.

The Battle for Syria

Spero

In a late-night statement, the White House said the United States discovered "potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack" by the Syrian government.

The statement said the activites are similar to prepartion the "regime made before its April 4, 2017, chemical weapons attack." The US responded to that attack that killed 100 people, including 25 children, by firing 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield that was believed to have carried out the strike on a rebel-held area.

In the statement, the US warned Syria would "pay a heave price" if it proceeds with the attack

"As we have previously stated, the United States is in Syria to eliminate the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria," the White House warned Syria. "If, however, Mr. Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price."

Shortly after the release of the statement, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, sent a warning to Iran and Russia that the US would also blame them if Syria proceeds with another chemical attack. Read more ..

Media on Edge

Philly.com

CNN is making changes in how it handles stories involving Donald Trump’s potential connections to Russia after the network deleted and retracted a report about a Russian investment fund’s potential ties to several associates of the president.

“No one should publish any content involving Russia without coming to me and Jason first,” CNNMoney executive editor Rich Barbieri said in an email to staff over the weekend, referring to Jason Farkas, a CNN vice president. BuzzFeed was first to report on the email, which said the changes will apply “to social, video, editorial, and MoneyStream. No exceptions.”

So far, CNN hasn’t offered any details why the report was pulled. Brian Stelter, host of the network’s Reliable Sources Sunday show which covers the intersection of media and politics, said in his daily newsletter he had questions about the incident. Read more ..

Europe on Edge

EU Times and Agencies

The Czech Republic has joined its Central European neighbors in officially announcing a withdrawal from the European Union’s 2015 migrant resettlement program.

After much criticism of the scheme, which seeks to resettle an initial 160,000 migrants from Italy and Greece across EU member states, the Czechs have finally withdrawn citing concerns over security and the ‘’dysfunctionality’’ of what has been criticized as a shambolic program.

Prague had accepted only 12 of the 1,600 migrants required by Brussels before leaving the program, which imposes quotas on all 28 member states under threat of sanction.

The resettlement scheme was the EU’s initial response to the near Biblical wave of migrants which arrived in autumn 2015 following Angela Merkel’s decision to open Germany’s borders. Read more ..

The Trump Era

Spero

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that former FBI Director James B. Comey's decision to supersede the authority of Barack Obama's Attorney General, Loretta E. Lynch, was “stunning.” He explained during his sworn testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that Comey's usurpation of Lynch's authority: “It violates fundamental powers.” It was Comey who announced the termination of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server instead of deferring to Lynch.

Sessions said, that when Comey defended his decision in testimony before last week's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, “that was additional confirmation that the director’s thinking was not clear.” Read more ..

Media on Edge

from agencies

Four more theaters announced Thursday they had canceled performances with Kathy Griffin after the comedian posed with a likeness of President Donald Trump's severed head.

Venues in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania canceled November shows. The Community Arts Theater in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, posted on its website that the show had been dropped "due to the recent controversy surrounding Kathy Griffin and the concern for the safety and security of our patrons and staff...."

Earlier this week, CNN said Griffin would no longer co-host its live New Year's Eve special from Times Square, a gig she'd had for more than a decade, and another show was canceled at a New Mexico casino. An endorsement deal with Squatty Potty also ended. Read more ..

The Edge of Terrorism

TCEN staff

Attorneys representing Stanley and Joyce Boim announced today that they have filed a lawsuit against American Muslims for Palestine (“AMP”); Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation (“AJP”); Rafeeq Jaber; Abdelbasset Hamayel; and Osama Abu Irshaid to hold them liable for a 2004 jury verdict and subsequent federal judgments under the Anti-Terrorism Act that awarded $156 million in damages to the parents of a 17-year-old American student murdered by Hamas.

The parents of David Boim, who was shot and killed by Hamas gunmen while waiting for a bus to Jerusalem, initiated a lawsuit in 2000 against individual organizations in the United States that provided material support to Hamas. These groups included the Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”); The American Muslim Society (“AMS”); and the Holy Land Foundation (“HLF”). A jury in Chicago’s federal court returned a verdict in the Boims’ favor of $52 million, which was trebled under the 1992 Anti-Terrorism Act (18 USC 2333). Read more ..

After the Vote

CBS

FBI Director James Comey misstated key issues in the Hillary Clinton email investigation during his testimony before Congress last week, two people familiar with the investigation have confirmed.

Comey last week told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that Clinton aide Huma Abedin made it a regular practice to forward "hundreds and thousands" of the former Secretary of State's messages -- including those containing classified information -- to her husband, disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner. But, the sources say that while Abedin did occasionally forward emails to Weiner's laptop for printing, the number was far smaller than Comey claimed and it wasn't a usual practice. Furthermore, none of the emails forwarded were marked classified, but later, a small number were found to contain classified information.

Some consider the late October revelation that more Clinton-related emails were discovered tipped the election in favor of now-President Donald Trump. Clinton herself claimed as much last week, when she said she was "on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey's letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me and got scared off."

Mr. Comey, in his recent testimony, said the thought that his actions may have influenced the election made him "mildly nauseous," but that he wouldn't have changed his actions. Read more ..

Broken Borders

Spero

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed on Sunday Senate Bill 4, which will ban sanctuary cities in the Lone Star state. Abbott signed the bill, unheralded, during a Facebook Live video. The law allows law enforcement officers, on the one hand, to ask persons they stop or detain about their immigration status, while on the other hand, the law may mean jail time for police, sheriffs, and constables who refuse to comply with detainer requests from federal immigration officials.

Some local law enforcement officials have announced they will comply, while others say the law will be problematic. "SB 4 is bad for public safety," San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said Friday. "It will not make our streets safer." He and Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County contend that the law will comprise public trust in law enforcement among illegal aliens. "They feel they can't come to me, their Bexar County sheriff, because they're more terrified of being deported," Salazar said.

Broken Borders

COB

For years, the federal government has failed to report the number of criminal aliens locked up in federal and state prisons, as well as local jails. Experts in penology have often complained that politicians and members of the news media are hesitant to discuss any connection between illegal aliens — many of whom are already felons since they’ve re-entered the country after being deported — and criminal acts such as murder, rape, robbery and other felonies.

President Trump’s Executive Orderon Public Safety in the Interior of the United States now requires the Department of Justice to collect relevant data and provide quarterly reports on data collection efforts. The data in this release shows a significant prison population of incarcerated aliens. Read more ..

The Edge of Justice

COB

Huma Abedin is once again attracting the attention of federal law enforcement in spite of the Democratic Party and news media cabal covering up reports and other documents revealing allegations of criminal activity by Abedin family members.

Two of Abedin’s relatives — both of them first cousins — are in serious trouble with the FBI and both Abedin and her former boss, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, are said to be an important characters in a very intricate investigation.

Besides covering up her alleged connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, Huma Abedin had all of the Democrats calling the Muslim Brotherhood a “moderate” Islamic organization, despite its being listed on terrorism watch lists from a number of Muslim countries including Egypt, the nation from where the group sprang.

U.S. Department of Justice attorneys have been prosecuting two of Huma Abedin’s family members for conspiracy, wire fraud and securities fraud. According to the investigators, Huma Abedin and the U.S. Department of State, where she served as Hillary Clinton’s “right-hand woman,” are mentioned in the case files. Read more ..

The Battle for Syria

Daily Telegraph

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad continues to retain hundreds of tonnes of his country's chemical stockpile after deceiving United Nations inspectors sent in to dismantle it, according to Syria’s former chemical weapons research chief and other experts.

Brigadier-General Zaher al-Sakat – who served as head of chemical warfare in the powerful 5th Division of the military until he defected in 2013 – told The Telegraph that Assad’s regime failed to declare large amounts of sarin and its precursor chemicals.

Syria handed over what it said was its entire chemical arsenal to the UN’s Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in 2014 under a deal negotiated by the US and Russia after hundreds of people were killed in a sarin gas attack in the outskirts of the capital, Damascus.

The North Korean Threat

from Fox, AP and agencies

A North Korean missile fired from the east coast of the country Sunday “blew up almost immediately,” officials said.

The U.S. Pacific Command said the missile, which came near the city of Sinpo, “blew up almost immediately,” but the type of missile was still being assessed.

The failure came one day after Pyongyang celebrated one of the biggest propaganda events of the year – the 105th birthday of the late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather.

The failed launch also comes ahead of Vice President Pence’s arrival in Seoul, South Korea for talks about how to handle Kim’s regime. Pence had been in contact with President Trump about the test. Read more ..

The Wall

CB

Attorney General Jeff Sessions traveled to the US-Mexico border, to speak with Department of Homeland Security personnel. Sessions told U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at the Port of Nogales in Arizona that more illegal immigrants should be prosecuted as criminals. According to Sessions’ memo (See video below), The person in the position known as a border security coordinator, will be directed to coordinate with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure border security prosecutions.

During his remarks, the Attorney General announced that he has issued a memorandum to United States Attorneys that mandates the prioritization of criminal immigration enforcement. The memo directs federal prosecutors to focus on particular offenses that, if aggressively charged and prosecuted, can help prevent and deter illegal immigration. Read more ..

Christians at Risk

from Fox and agencies

Egypt's president called for a three-month state of emergency Sunday after at least 44 people were killed and more than 100 more were injured in two Palm Sunday suicide attacks at Coptic Christian churches, each carried out by the ISIS terror group.

Sunday's first blast happened at St. George Church in the Nile Delta town of Tanta, where at least 27 people were killed and 78 others wounded, officials said.

Television footage showed the inside of the church, where a large number of people gathered around what appeared to be lifeless, bloody bodies covered with papers.

A second explosion – which Egypt’s Interior Ministry says was caused by a suicide bomber who tried to storm St. Mark's Cathedral in the coastal city of Alexandria -- left at least 17 dead, and 48 injured. The attack came just after Pope Tawadros II -- leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria -- finished services, but aides told local media that he was unharmed. Read more ..

Israel on Edge

from agencies

In a statement released today by its Foreign Ministry on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Russia took the unusual step of removing ambiguity about its stance on West Jerusalem. After explaining that it is “deeply concerned” about the absence of active negotiations between Israel and the Arabs on the creation of an Arab state in Judea and Samaria, Russia spelled out its stance on Jerusalem. “We reaffirm our commitment to the UN-approved principles for a Palestinian-Israeli settlement, which include the status of East Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state. At the same time, we must state that in this context we view West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” read the statement.

The Edge of Defense

EE Times

An international team of researchers from the University of California, San Diego and the Australia-based Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have devised a disposable 'lab-on-a-glove' enabling the wearer to identify health-threatening biochemical agents through a simple and secure swipe across a surface to be tested.

The researchers used tailor-made printable inks stencil-printed as serpentine patterns on regular purple nitrile powder-free exam gloves to create stretchable, yet robust conductive circuits. The thumb is used as a sample collection surface and only sports a printed stretchable carbon disk to ensure the adhesion of analyte residues.

At the tip of the index, part of an electrochemical cell is printed, immobilizing the enzyme organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH) capped with a conductive semi-solid gel matrix (covering an enzymatic OPH/Nafion layer) for analyte diffusion from the collection pad towards the OPH enzyme layer on the working electrode. The enzyme reacts to the presence of organophosphate (OP) compounds, also known as nerve agents for their high neurotoxicity.

Combatting Jew Hatred

from contributed

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (D.C.) has rejected efforts by the American Studies Association (ASA) to suppress a lawsuit filed against the Association by its own members challenging the ASA’s adoption of a boycott of all Israeli academic institutions. The judge ruled in favor of the ASA professors in four out of six claims, and authorized the case to go forward.

According to the plaintiffs, the boycott adopted by ASA in December 2013 was a concerted effort by a small number of BDS activists, including founding members of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), who abused their leadership positions in ASA to make anti-Israel activism the central focus of the Association. They charge that ASA’s activism breached its contractual duty to its members, and that the boycott was pushed through in violation of the ASA’s own rules governing how votes should be conducted.Read more ..

The Trump Era

Spero

Republican Rep. Ted Poe of Texas has left the House Freedom Caucus after the group of Tea Party-oriented Republicans opposed the American Health Care Act, which had received support from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) as a replacement for Obamacare. A vote on what has come to be termed “Ryancare” was scheduled for a vote on Friday, but was pulled because of opposition it faced from the Freedom Caucus and other Republicans.

"I have resigned from the House Freedom Caucus," Poe said in a statement. "In order to deliver on the conservative agenda we have promised the American people for eight years, we must come together to find solutions to move this country forward. Saying no is easy, leading is hard, but that is what we were elected to do. Leaving this caucus will allow me to be a more effective Member of Congress and advocate for the people of Texas. It is time to lead."

The Freedom Caucus does not publish the names of its members. However, among those who had acknowledged their membership are Reps. Joe Barton, Louie Gohmert, and Randy Weber.

The Trump Era

Spero

A federal judge in Virginia ruled Friday against blocking President Trump’s executive order that called for temporarily stopping the entry of immigrants from six majority-Muslim nations and refugee admittance overall.

Judge Anthony Trenga of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found on Friday that President Trump indeed has the authority to impose a travel ban on certain Muslim-majority countries, while he also agreed that the president’s executive order does not discriminate against Muslims. Linda Sarsour -- a Muslim activist who was an organizer of the January 21 Women’s March on Washington -- had initiated an injunction against the executive order with legal counsel from an attorney of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The Edge of Terrorism

Spero

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has come in for more scrutiny in the wake of a terrorist incident in the British capital that left three innocent persons dead at the hands of a terrorist. When Khan visited New York in September 2016, he was shocked to hear a terrorist bomb detonate on West 23rd Street in the Chelsea neighborhood. An Afghan national was later arrested in connection with the incident. In response to the bombing in New York, Khan said that living with terrorism is "part and parcel of living in a big city." In an interview with the Evening Standard, Khan said, "is a reality I’m afraid that London, New York, other major cities around the world have got to be prepared for these sorts of things. Read more ..

The Edge of Terrorism

The Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) praised the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to publicly charge Palestinian terrorist Ahlam Tamimi. Ahlam Tamimi planned and implemented a bombing that killed and injured American citizens in a Sbarro Pizzeria in Jerusalem in 2001. The group issued the following statement.

"On Tuesday, March 14, 2017, the DOJ’s criminal complaint was unsealed, charging Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, also known as “Khalti” and “Halati,” a Jordanian national in her mid-30s, with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against U.S. nationals outside the U.S., resulting in death. Also unsealed was a warrant for Al-Tamimi’s arrest and an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint and arrest warrant. The DOJ charge is related to Tamimi’s planning and implementing of a suicide bombing at a Sbarro Pizzeria in Jerusalem on Aug. 9, 2001, that killed 15 people. Read more ..

The Edeg of Terrorism

McClatchy

The Department of Justice is for the first time charging a member of Hamas for crimes resulting in the death of American citizens.

On Tuesday, the department made public charges filed against Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi for her role in the 2001 bombing of a Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem. Fifteen civilians, including seven children and a pregnant woman, were killed in the attack. Two were U.S. nationals, and four Americans were among the approximately 122 injured.

“Al-Tamimi is an unrepentant terrorist who admitted to her role in a deadly terrorist bombing that injured and killed numerous innocent victims,” Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Mary McCord said Tuesday. “The charges unsealed today serve as a reminder that when terrorists target Americans anywhere in the world, we will never forget – and we will continue to seek to ensure that they are held accountable.”